Whilst catch reports have been pretty good on the Reydon complex it is understood that some members have, quite understandably, raised concerns around some fish deaths that have been experienced on two of our lakes.
It is not uncommon for rivers and lakes around the country to loose a small number of fish through natural causes. Whilst unfortunate, this is a fact of life.
Never the less, the Committee take reports of any fish deaths in our waters very seriously and try to understand why such a thing has happened.
As far as we can tell, Pit 2 has seen two fish deaths this season, plus another fish was removed due to it being in an unsurvivable condition when caught.
The first loss was a common of about 12lb not long after the first spell of spawning. There was no evidence of that fish having been recently caught and the loss was put down to the stress and damage caused by spawning.
The second fish was about a week ago and close inspection confirmed it was totally spawn bound, indeed, there had been recent reports of it showing such signs when observed in the days leading up to its death. Sadly this was one of our 38lb mirrors.
Lastly, another Mirror of about 33lb was caught a few days ago. Despite it obviously feeding, it was observed to be a very sick fish to the point it was highly unlikely to survive. The extremely difficult decision was therefore taken to put it out of its misery. A subsequent internal inspection confirmed this had been the right decision to make.
Moving on to Pit 4, we lost 4 fish in the first week of July, a week or so after they were reported as spawning. These were two bream of around 3 to 4lb and two mirrors of around 17lb and 11lb.
The fact that two different species were involved resulted in particularly close monitoring of the water which found oxygen levels were down at one end of the lake, all be it well above critical levels. Despite the water looking in good order and no further signs of fish in distress, the precautionary approach was taken with the aerator (purchased last year) being installed and run for around 14 hours from 2pm the first day and overnight the day after. Oxygen levels increased and no further problems were observed.
Again, as far as we can tell, none of those fish had been recently caught and the deaths were put down to post spawning stress with lower oxygen levels possibly contributing to it.
The conclusion was reached that none of the fish deaths were as a result of angling pressure and were an unfortunate natural occurrence. Indeed, it is not uncommon for us to loose the odd fish during the closed season when no angling activity has taken place.
As an aside, two bream were also lost at Kessingland. Bream deaths following spawning is quite common and many such cases can be observed on rivers, such as the River Waveney, during the closed season.
It is always upsetting to loose fish under any circumstances but the committee always tries to investigate what may have happened and considers if anything could, or should have been done differently.
The current view is that, even had the waters been closed for a period, these fish would still have been lost.
The waters will continue to be closely monitored and, if it is felt necessary to take any further action, then it will be taken.
Our levels of restocking do take account of both reported losses and the finance available. The long term management of the waters reflects in the quality of the fishing and fish we now have to offer. Members can support the committee in this management by sharing catch reports in order for our stocks to be continuously monitored. Keeping catches secret does nothing to help anybody. The committee are quite happy not to publicise such information if requested not to do so.
Finally, for those who love fishing, loosing fish is traumatic enough but spare a thought for those who have the unenviable task of recovering, inspecting and disposing of the remains. It's even worse for those having to put a fish out of its misery. On behalf of the Committee and our members I would like to thank those who respond to help the Society with theses matters, we are all very grateful.
We are obviously hoping that there are no further losses and look forward to the rest of the season being a good one.
Barry Reid
Chairman
I have just seen this comment Jason and in response to this I would like to say firstly the captures of numbers of king carp on pit two have been no different as to any other summer period, this information comes from a number of people I talk to, what is a little different is to where they are caught from and possibly who is catching them, also it had no effect to numbers caught when the society had the far bank levelled to install the fence a few years ago to keep the otters out, it was the full length of the pit not half as it is to date.
Secondly the statement of the fish spawn post close…
I think that you should consider stopping the close season as half the time the fish spawn post the start of season anyway so closing the lake down at this time is irrelevant. As soon as the carp spawn close that lake for 3 weeks. The removal of the gorse on the bank margin probably hasn’t helped although I understand the need to do so. The carp especially have lost all of their natural cover and the lake hasn’t been fishing as well as a result.